


Of Lions, Dogs, and Wolves

by tesselations



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Gryffindor Love, Hogwarts First Year, M/M, Marauders' Era, Sirius is a spoiled brat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 15:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3138773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tesselations/pseuds/tesselations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius Black never planned on being in Gryffindor. But then again, he didn't plan for a lot of things-- before he was a man and a legend, he was a boy scared of his mother's letters. Remus teaches him a lot of things, most importantly: the only constant is change.</p><p>(Will probably be continued. Slowly.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Lions, Dogs, and Wolves

Underneath the Sorting Hat, Sirius felt much smaller than he was used to being.

“Hmm another Black is it….?” said the Hat, as Sirius continued to mistrust it. It smelled of mothballs and he could feel a draft in a corner where one of the patches was wearing out, and it kept mumbling indistinct things, like _smarter than I expected_ and _got a brother you take care of, good on you._

Sirius thought of his mother and her knife-blade shrieks, and raised his chin defiantly and commanded the hat, in his best ‘first-born son of the Family Black’ voice, to put him in Slytherin already. So no one else could hear, he thought as loudly and pleadingly as possible, _please please please Slytherin_ —or even Ravenclaw, he could settle for being smart, and Andromeda was there. The Hat just chuckled.

“Ravenclaw? You’re smart, I’ll give you that, bloody brilliant even. But you’ll never do anything with it. You don’t like learning for it’s own sake, and you aren’t ambitious enough to do something you don’t like.” 

Sirius was offended, and made sure the hat knew. The Hat let out a mothball-scented sigh. 

“So that marks off Slytherin doesn’t it—“ 

“No!” Sirius snapped. The hat laughed. 

“You’re a brave one aren’t you though? Stand up to your mother, and to me…”and suddenly Sirius was ready to vomit, “…so I guess it must be GRYFFINDOR.” 

There was a smattering of applause from people who didn’t understand, but Sirius barely heard it as he made his way to the Gryffindor table. He sat by himself on the far end of the table, and refused to look anyone in the eye, as Narcissa and Bella whispered to each other behind their napkins, and Andromeda made reassuring faces at him from the Ravenclaw table.

Sirius tried not to listen, but every time the Hat called out Slytherin, his stomach dropped. There were a couple Gryffindor girls, some that looked Mugglish and some that didn’t, but Sirius glared at all of them until they decided they’d better sit far away. But there were no Gryffindor boys till ‘L’, and Sirius hadn’t caught his name.

Sirius had expected him to sit with the girls, or the older boys who seemed much more eager to welcome him than Sirius. But the boy walked past them all and sat down at Sirius’ right side.

“What’re you doing here?” Sirius, trying to sound haughty like Bella did. 

“Sitting down,” he replied. He was pale and thin and utterly nondescript. “Do you mind?”  
Sirius was about to say something rude and terribly clever, but the boy turned to look at him with brown eyes, dark and utterly unimpressed by his affectations, and Sirius shut his mouth and shrugged.

“My name’s Sirius Black, of the Most Noble House of Black,” he said, holding out a hand to shake automatically.

“Remus Lupin,” He didn’t say where he was from, and Sirius didn’t recognize the family. Their introduction was interrupted by a loud cheer for “Pettigrew, Peter.” 

Peter was round and pink and looked anxiously at the Gryffindor table, and Sirius gave him his haughtiest glare. But next to him, Remus waved a hand in the air, and the obviously relieved Peter scurried over to sit across from them. Soon after, James Potter and Gideon Prewett joined them.

Despite his age, and his glasses, and his atrocious hedgehog hair, James didn’t miss a beat, or look uncomfortable at all. Walking to the Gryffindor table, he raised his arms and the air and whooped loudly, and the Gryffindor table whooped back. 

“Prat,” Sirius mumbled. Remus just smiled. James ambled confidently past the older kids and the first-year girls to sit next to Pettigrew, who was clearly very impressed, and across from him and Lupin. James narrowed his eyes at Sirius. 

They had met before, once, at some ridiculous Ministry party—the Potters would never come to Black-hosted social event— and they had caused heaps of trouble, knocking over glasses and dinner settings and tripping the ridiculously dressed, paper-thin wives of important officials. To stop them, Sirius’ father had put him in a partial body bind and made him sit at the table; as soon as he was free, Sirius had yelled at his father, and then yelled at James, whose father didn’t care if he caused trouble, and broke his glasses, grinding them under the heel of his tiny dress shoe.

They had been what, seven, eight, and had never talked after that, and now James was across the table from him, looking supremely confident and like he was where he belonged. Sirius scowled at him. James tensed. Sirius glared. James tightened his grip on his fork. 

Peter squeaked.

“The food is here!” he said with a raspy gasp of joy. ”Look at this spread!” Sirius turned to him, fully prepared to turn the glare he had prepared for James onto this mousy little boy, but Remus cleared his throat next to him and cut in.

“The food looks wonderful. I’m ravenous,” he said quietly, and tucked in. Remus didn’t say much, just shoveled enormous amounts of food into his mouth as James and Gideon and Peter chatted amiably, and Sirius interjected occasionally, when he couldn’t bear to listen to the three makes fools of themselves for any longer.

By the end of the meal, Lupin had cleared off about as much food as Sirius, James, and Gideon combined. Peter stared bug-eyed at him.

“That’s incredible mate. Where do you put it all?” he asked.

“Very good question. Unlike some of us, Lupin doesn’t really have the space for all that food, does he?” Sirius asked dryly. Lupin just scowled at him, and fidgeted with ragged sleeve of his robe. 

“I was hungry,” he mumbled. James clapped Peter on the back.

“Leave Lupin alone, he eats like a real man,” James said, a claim that somehow didn’t sound preposterously childish from an eleven year old. Sirius just shrugged. 

Then Nearly-Headless Nick appeared, swinging his head from the bit of flesh attached to his neck and scaring as many first years as he good. Across from him, Gideon, James, and Peter all jumped or flinched. Next to him, Remus stayed still and relaxed.

“Not scared?” Sirius asked, curiosity overtaking his haughtiness. Remus shook his head.

“I could feel the cold air before he appeared,” he confided, with a smile in his eyes. “You?” Sirius just shrugged. 

“I’ve seen worse,” he said, and he had, in the attic of Grimmauld Place and the cabinets in their summer home. There was nothing grotesque about a man whose head nearly came off after all that. Remus looked suspicious, but he didn’t ask questions.

Long after they had been led up to their dormitories and gotten their passwords, Sirius stared up at his canopy. The other boys had fallen asleep quickly, in the middle of getting to know each other and going to bed. But Sirius could only imagine the letters he was going to get—not Howlers, no, that would embarrass his cousins. The letters his mother would send would be worse.

A rustling sound distracted him. Remus had gotten out of bed and was walking to the large window, staring out of it at the waning moon. Sirius slipped out of bed to join him. Remus didn’t seem surprised.

“Can’t sleep?” Remus asked. Sirius shook his head. 

“You?” he asked.

“Moon’s too bright. And I’m too excited, to be honest,” he said, his smile almost an apology for his joy. “Look how much there is to explore.”

Sirius looked where Remus pointed, to the rolling hills that flattened by the lake, the looming trees of the Forbidden Forest, the stands and flat grass of the Quidditch field. 

“I can’t wait,” he said, and realized it was true.

\--

When his mother’s letters arrived, Sirius stomach dropped. The first one he opened contained ripped up pieces of a letter that he pieced together, just to read his mother’s disapproval. 

After he cried, he wiped his eyes, and threw the rest out. All but the envelope full of shredded up pieces of the first letter. Lupin walked in on him when he was doing it, the corners of his eyes still red, and walked back out, bony and awkward. Neither of them ever mentioned it to each other.

-

The first weekend, he and Lupin began to explore the grounds. Hogwarts was huge, and they got incredibly lost and missed two classes and dinner, and wrestled each other through the portrait hole door. Back up in their dormitory, Lupin slumped back against the four-poster bed and moaned.

“I’m starving Sirius,” he complained.

“Siriusly?” Sirus joked, and Lupin whuffed a little laugh.

“Seriously. Why did we have to miss supper?” he asked. Sirius shrugged, and grabbed a candy bar out of his trunk.

“It’s alright mate, I’ve got snacks,” he replied smugly, tossing the candy bar to Remus. The other boy caught it and stared.

“This is bloody expensive chocolate,” he started. Sirius was confused.

“It’s the kind my mum always buys me. Eat it or I’ll feed it to Peter, and he won’t even appreciate it.”

Lupin’s eyes widened, but he accepted the chocolate, crumpling to the floor after eating it.

“Nevermind, better than supper,” he declared. Sirius laughed. The door swung open, and James, Peter, and Gideon tumbled in. 

“Where were you guys during supper?” James asked. Sirius shrugged. 

“Exploring the grounds,” he replied. James grinned. 

“Sounds fun,” he said. He seemed to have forgiven Sirius for being a prat when he was eight, apparently the bonds of Gryffindor were stronger than any grudges James was capable of holding. Sirius did not feel the same.

“It was. Bet it would be cooler at night though,” Lupin said wistfully, staring out the window again.

James grinned.

“Wanna find out?” he asked, and reached into his trunk.

-

Over the next few weeks, Sirius talked to more people. James turned out to be as great as Sirius had hoped he wasn’t, and Peter’s damp compliance irritated and flattered him in equal parts. His favorite was Lupin; the boy was quiet and wickedly funny when he put his mind to it. Gideon was fine too, but he seemed to hang out mostly with his brother and James. The girls weren’t terrible, although Evans seemed to hate him on sight. Sirius had grown up with female cousins though, and even on her crankiest day, Evans couldn’t match Bella in a bad mood.

Laying on his stomach in his four poster, Sirius surveyed his dormitory. His books were in a pile at the foot of his bed, Tranfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, Potions all stacked on top of each other. James and Gideon were tossing a fake snitch back and forth over Peter’s head, while the shorter boy kept trying and failing to intercept it. Lupin was curled in a wall by the window, reading a book, the moonlight in his hair. 

Life in Gryffindor wasn’t as terrible as he thought it would be.


End file.
